A trip to "Cedar Rapids"

I was genuinely excited when the midstate got its third and fourth first-run theaters with the Houston Lakes Stadium Cinemas 10 in Warner Robins and the Edge 14 replacing the former Regal Rivergate 14 here in Macon. After all, more theaters means more movies, right?

It really hasn't worked out that way too often yet, but now at the Galleria Mall Stadium Cinemas 15 in Centerville (or at least if it lasts more than one week), we've got in "Cedar Rapids" a low-key but genuinely likable comedy worth checking out before it disappears.

Director Miguel Arteta's fish-out-of-water comedy stars Ed Helms of "The Office" as a small-town Iowa insurance salesman who gets his big break when he gets to attend the big annual conference in the titular "Cedar Rapids" (what happened to the guy he replaces is something I won't go into in this column that also appears in a family newspaper - let's just say its one of the many ways that Arteta mixes in some raunch in this generally and genuinely otherwise sweet tale.)

From the outset, Arteta and screenwriter Phil Johnston, a native Iowan, both embrace the oddity of the American Midwest and at the same time poke fun at it consistently, starting with the thrill that Helms' Tim Lippe gets from simply going through airport security. Once he reaches the "big city," Helms does what he does best on "The Office," mainly react to others. And "Cedar Rapids" is full of funny folks for him to bounce off of, starting with John C. Reilly's Dean Ziegler, who steals every inch of screen he's given.

He's so natural a comedian now that it's easy to forget Reilly was once a fairly serious character actor, even garnering an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of "Mr. Cellophane" in "Chicago." Since then, however, he's buddied up with one Will Ferrell, and has adopted many of Ferrell's best comedy touches and combined them his own hangdog appeal. He gets his best character yet here in Dean Ziegler, the ultimate buffoon-with-a-big-heart, and as much as he'll make you cringe (stick around through the closing credits for another joke so tasteless there is, again, no way it can be repeated here), he also makes you cheer as he and Helms make a mismatched buddy team of sorts.

The main ensemble is rounded out by Anne Heche, funnier than she's been in years as a married woman on the prowl, and Isaiah Whitlock Jr., who played sleazy pol Clay Davis on "The Wire" and gets plenty of mileage here out of subverting the expectations for his character by channeling one of that show's other most beloved (and extremely violent) characters. Very good in supporting roles are the always-welcome Stephen Root as Lippe's boss and mentor, and Alia Shawkat of "Arrested Development" as a hooker who bonds with Lippe as she works the convention crowd.

In all, the movie could use a little more edge, never really reaching the satiric level of the best movies of Alexander Payne, who is one of the producers of "Cedar Rapids." But it does have a real heart and humanity that's sorely missing in most of what passes for comedy nowadays, and like the best of Arteta's movies ("The Good Girl," "Chuck & Buck" and "Youth in Revolt"), it's packed with genuine characters that he embraces even as he ridicules them.

And for that, plus plenty of low-key laughs, it's well worth the 20-minute-or-so drive down the road for Maconites to check out "Cedar Rapids" in Centerville while you still can.

Six glimpses of tonight's big "Office" wedding and a visit from Dr. Parnassus

Actually, the coolest news out there today about TV is that young Ellen Page and Alia Shawkat (aka Maeby Fünke) may soon be coming to my TV (and if you have HBO, yours.)

It seems that the two stars of Drew Barrymore's "Whip It" have signed a deal along with Sean Tillmann to write, produce and (hopefully!) quite possibly star in something called "Stitch N' Bitch" for HBO. According to the description I saw, it would be about "two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood to Los Angeles' Silver Lake enclave in hopes of becoming artists - of any kind."

That sounds funny enough, but I think they'd have to be the stars themselves to get me hooked. I found "Whip It" to be pretty average, and often downright afterschool-special-ish when it wasn't on the roller rink, but the two of them are still easily two of my favorite young actresses out there. (And, just as an aside that will come as a shock to no one who bothered to watch it, "Arrested Development" still gets a 9.7 out of 10 rating at the IMDB.)

But regards TV here today, of course, it's all about Pam and Jim's big wedding tonight on "The Office." By nature I'd imagine this will bring an awful lot of sweet, but hopefully a whole lot of funny too in the hour-long broadcast.

As the entire office ventures to Niagara Falls for the big day, Michael, Dwight and Andy are, of course, on the prowl for ladies, and Michael and Dwight apparently meet twins. Here, courtesy of NBC, are six short preview clips of tonight's episode (and, if you stick around to the end, a visit from Dr. Parnassus, I promise.) Enjoy.













And now, as a bonus, here is the first full trailer, I think, for Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," which is set to finally get a limited release date on Christmas Day (and I'll be in New York so I can see it!) Along with plenty of the late Heath Ledger and glimpses of the three actors who stepped in to finish the job, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law, you get enough of a taste of what Gilliam has cooked up here to have me just about thoroughly geeked up for this. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Wanna see Ellen Page "Whip It!"? Of course!

And when you've got something as fun as that, I suppose you really don't need anything else, but if I can briefly make a music recommendation, I'm listening to St. Vincent's "The Actor" this morning, and it really is rather amazing.

I rarely buy CDs (well, Itunes downloads more often now) without knowing a pretty good deal about them, but I saw this reviewed in some mag and just decided it sounded good, and it indeed does. The second album from the woman also known as Annie Clark, a former member of the Polyphonic Spree, is just a weird, wonderful little collection of songs, and well worth checking out.

But quickly on to the main course, because I'm very soon going to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," and my mind isn't really on anything else to write too long. Below is the first trailer for director Drew Barrymore's "Whip It!", which stars Ellen Page (welcome back!), Kristen Wiig and even Alia Shawkat of "Arrested Development" in a roller derby movie. I can't imagine you need to know much more than that to be intrigued, but know that the flick, due out Oct. 9, was also written by Shauna Cross who used to skate under the name Maggie Mayhem for the Los Angeles Derby Girls. Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Thursday. Peace out.

@ Yahoo! Video

Where are they now: The cast of "Arrested Development"

The inspiration for this post comes from Jason Bateman, who is on quite a roll of late.

Friday, of course, he'll star in "The Kingdom," which I'm looking forward to if only because it's directed by Peter Berg, in whom I have full faith. It looks like a pretty standard political thriller, but I'm still holding out hope that it will turn out to be more than that.

And this morning comes word, in French from the great froggy film site Cinempire.com, so bear with me, that he's joined the cast of Kevin MacDonald's next flick, "State of Play." Based on the British miniseries of the same name, it also stars Edward Norton and a certain actor you may have heard of named Brad Pitt.

Norton will play a police deputy who's charged with investigating the death of a politician's mistress, Pitt is the politician's old campaign manager who's called upon to hush everything up, and Bateman is a journalist who's trying to do the opposite (if you've seen the BBC miniseries and I have any of this wrong, please let me know.)

That all sounds great to me, and of course Bateman can be seen before that in a Bluth father-and-son reunion in "Juno," a flick I've mentioned here, well, at least 500 times or so. Michael Cera is on as good a role of late as his TV dad, so here's hoping that continues (and, just in case you've somehow missed it, please check out ClarkandMichael.com and be ready to laugh - a lot.)

And, as a tribute to the much-missed (by me, at least) "Arrested Development," here's a look at what's happened to the rest of the cast since Fox killed this utterly entertaining show:

Jason Bateman: Along with the aforementioned projects, Michael Bluth will also appear soon in "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium." All I know about this is that it's about a magical toy store and it stars Natalie Portman, which is enough to get me at least a bit intrigued. Next summer he'll star in "Hancock" with very pretty people Charlize Theron and Will Smith.

Portia de Rossi: I'm sad to report that Lindsay Bluth Funke has nothing listed on her IMDB resume since "Arrested Development" except an appearance or two on her girlfriend's talk show. Surely there must be work out there for this rather funny lady.

Will Arnett: I would say that Gob Bluth's post-"AD" movie record has been nothing short of atrocious, but since I haven't bothered to see most of his flicks I can't say that with authority. Up next on his very busy resume (he has at least eight projects listed as announced or active on the IMDB) will be an appearance in "Semi-Pro," the next sports-oriented Will Ferrell flick about a struggling basketball team from Flint, Michigan. This looks like it could be very funny, but after that I'm sorry to have to say he'll be providing voice for the thoroughly unnecessary remake of "Horton Hears a Who." Oh well. I guess a man's gotta eat.

Michael Cera: After "Juno," in which he plays the rather fortunate young man who manages to impregnate young Ellen Page, he's set to star in a movie based on the very funny novel "Youth in Revolt" by C.D. Payne. I just finished reading this, and I can report that if you can handle yet another novel about a 14-year-old and his constant quest to have sex, this one is just a hoot from start to finish and should make a good flick in the right hands.

Alia Shawkat: George Michael Bluth's cousin Maeby, conveniently enough, also stars in a flick being released this week, something called "Prom Wars." As the title implies, this is a flick that's targeted at an audience just slightly younger than me, but I'll probably see it anyway at some point. The plot (courtesy of IMDB): The graduating class at Miss Aversham and Miss Cronstall's School for Girls find that they have all blossomed simultaneously. Capitalizing on their improbable hotness, they issue a challenge to the boys of rival private schools, Selby House and Lancaster College: The winner in a series of athletic and academic competitions will be awarded exclusive rights to the girls as prom dates. Oddly enough, this appears to be headed straight for DVD, since I can't even find it listed at Yahoo's movies site.

Tony Hale: Buster Bluth is next listed as having a bit part in "Rockett," some kind of romantic comedy set to star Jimmy Fallon (meh) in November. After that he's down for two movies I know absolutely nothing about, some kind of thriller called "In My Sleep" and "The Tale of Desperaux," a rather star-studded animated flick about a mouse, a rat and a servant girl. Who knew rats would become the new penguins?

David Cross: Tobias Funke was, for my money, the funniest cast member of "AD," with Michael Cera a close second. He's starring very soon, if you're lucky enough to be going to the New York Film Festival, as Allen Ginsberg in Todd Haynes' trippy Dylan biopic "I'm Not There," but after that things dont look too promising. After an appearance with Jason Lee in "Alvin and the Chipmunks" (no, I'm not kidding) he only has animated voice credits listed, although at least one of those will be in the upcoming "Futurama" (huzzah!) movie or episode (not sure which) "The Beast With a Billion Backs."

Jeffrey Tambor: George Bluth has already flamed out in one post-"AD" sitcom, "20 Good Years" (which didn't even last one bad one). He's currently listed for another pilot, "The Captain," but I couldn't manage to find out if this has even been picked up for this fall. After that, I have the pleasure to report he's set to reprise his role as Tom Manning in Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" and the displeasure to report he'll then star in yet another "spoof" movie, the thoroughly unnecessary "Superhero!"

Jessica Walter: Since "AD," Lucille Bluth has only made three one-shot appearances on TV shows I've never seen, "Rules of Engagement," "Saving Grace" and "The Land Before Time." Surely there must be more work out there for this very funny lady.

And there you have it. I hope that was enjoyable to at least one person, and that you all have an entirely suck-free Tuesday.